The United States is accelerating its nuclear deterrence program, following Donald Trump’s declaration to make the nation “greater, bigger, stronger, better than ever before.”
Earlier this year, at the World Economic Forum, shortly after assuming office as the 47th President, Donald Trump spoke of the dawn of “the golden age of America.”
He stated, “We’ve accomplished more in less than four days […] than other administrations have accomplished in four years, and we’re just getting started. It’s really an amazing thing to see, and the spirit and the light over our country has been incredible.
“Under the last administration, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it greater, bigger, stronger, better than ever before.”
Part of the strategy to enhance the US’s strength involves bolstering its nuclear deterrence capabilities.
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has announced the expedited development of its B61-13 program—a variable-yield gravity bomb—aiming to deliver it “seven months earlier than expected.”
Sandia National Laboratories provided an update on its ‘Nuclear Deterrence’ initiative through its website: “Responding to a critical challenge and urgent need, the B61-13 program used innovative program planning that resulted in projected delivery seven months earlier than expected, a more than 25 percent decrease in overall time to first production unit.
“The B61-13 team reprioritized qualification activities, planned tests with US Air Force stakeholders and jointly completed requirements with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA. Their creativity in system qualification put an aggressive set of plans in motion to meet stakeholder expectations.”
The development of this new nuclear deterrent was reportedly announced in 2023, according to The Aviationist.
SNL previously stated in a press release: “The B61-13 will strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies and partners by providing the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.”
The B61-13 initiative succeeds the completion of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb’s last production unit in December of the previous year.
The agency noted, as quoted by The Aviationist: “The B61-12 LEP, which is critical to sustaining the Nation’s air delivered nuclear deterrent capability, extends the service life by at least 20 years through refurbishing, reusing, or replacing all the bomb’s nuclear and non-nuclear component.”
Sandia senior manager Rich Otten remarked: “It’s a tremendous accomplishment. For more than a decade, people have poured their time, effort and careers into making this a reality.”